Month: September 2007

Click here to read all of the 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt posts. Day 22: The Emergency Fund A brief history of my Emergency Fund – Before I decided to get out of debt, I did not have an emergency fund. I lived “paycheck-to-paycheck” and if things got “tight” at the end of the month, I would whip out the old credit card and “solve that month’s money problem”. Of course, all that I was doing was pushing one month’s problem into the next month, and so on and so on. When I finally decided to get my financial house in order, the first thing I did was establish a mini-emergency fund. I sold…

Click here to read all of the 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt posts. Made popular by Dave Ramsey, the Debt Snowball allows for rapid debt reduction. I used the Debt Snowball and managed to pay off $11,500 in 10 months. The debt snowball worked for me and my family! Here’s a quick overview of how the Debt Snowball works: List all debts – either from lowest balance to highest balance OR highest interest rate to lowest interest rate – and make minimum payments to all accounts. Make an extra payment to the first account on your list. After paying off the first account, take the combined amount (minimum payment and extra payment) which had…

Click here to read all of the 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt posts. Day 21: Focus I believe in ‘goal creation’. Over the past three years, I’ve created three personal finance goals. I started this blog because I wanted to get out of debt. After getting out of debt, I decided to build emergency fund. Now I’m working to save 60% of my income in retirement and education savings. So, what’s the ‘secret’? Focus. I create a goal and then I break that goal down into manageable micro-goals – and then I spend my days focusing on those micro-goals. When I wanted to get out of debt, I put every extra dollar towards paying…